Cliff Asness’s AQR Capital Management posted another year of double-digit returns at its longest-running multistrategy fund, as value wagers helped fuel those gains.
The quant giant’s Absolute Return strategy jumped 18.5% in 2023 following a record 43.5% the previous year, a person familiar with the matter said, asking not to be identified discussing performance.
AQR’s gains were helped by stock selection as well as relative value wagers tied to macro investing, the person said. The Greenwich, Connecticut-based firm has also benefited from separate trend-following strategies tied to macro and commodities investments.
A representative for AQR declined to comment.
Asness, who co-founded AQR in 1998 after leaving Goldman Sachs Group Inc., has been an advocate of value-versus-growth investment, a rules-based trade that scoops up cheap-looking equities. The strategy had its best performance last year since the dot-com bubble, and Asness has said the opportunity could last for years, though performance could be volatile. Growth stocks contributed to the 24% jump in the S&P 500 Index in 2023.
AQR’s dedicated value strategy gained 20.6% last year, the person said, while an alternative trend-following strategy, known as Helix, rose 14.3%, helped by profits in commodity markets including iron ore, natural gas and power.
The firm also started a newer, closely watched strategy known as Apex in 2020 that incorporates stock, macro and arbitrage investing, and that rose 16.2% last year.
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.
